1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a forming machine and, more particularly, to a forming machine for milling a member, such as a boat hull, having complex contours.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, aquatic vehicles such as boats arc formed by assembling; two fiberglass molded members--a hull and a deck. Unfortunately, the known molding processes do not produce a "clean" hull and deck, each member must be "finished" before the aquatic vehicle is ready. Each member portion must be trimmed to remove any flash from the molding process and further cut to provide any design features such as vents, ports and the like. In addition, holes are drilled in each member so that the two members can be fastened together by conventional threaded fasteners to form the final assembly such as a boat or personal watercraft. The additional trimming, drilling and cutting steps are currently performed by hand following the initial bond molding process. A worker must grind the surfaces of the above-identified portions with as many as ten hand tools such as router bits and drill bits in order to create the finished product.
Several problems have arisen during this finishing process. Completing the finishing steps on both the hull and deck can take a significant amount of time, and labor. The tools used to grind the hull and deck portions produce a large amount of dangerous airborne fiberglass particles which are extremely harmful to the workers. In addition, use of these hand tools over an extended period can cause physical injury to the workers including tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome. Finally, the use of the hand tools by human workers creates a lack of consistency when aquatic vehicles of a particular model are mass produced so that a comparison of these aquatic vehicles could reveal several major and minor inconsistencies between them.